MORE than 15,000 illegal cigarettes were seized after a trading standards and police crackdown.
SHOPKEEPERS and members of the public have been urged to be on the lookout for smuggled goods following seizures of illegal cigarettes and tobacco in Abbey Hulton.
TRADING Standards watchdogs have thanked the public for information which led to the seizure of a major illegal tobacco haul.
CUSTOMS officers yesterday seized 3.5 million cigarettes at Rosslare Port, adding to the haul of 38 million seized in Dublin Port on Thursday.
A PENSIONER accused of trying to evade duty on large amounts of cigarettes and tobacco has been cleared of two of the three charges he faced.
A Bradford shopkeeper traded in illicit cigarettes and tobacco from his city-centre store, a court heard.
A haul of bootleg tobacco has been seized in raids on Tyneside stores.
Two men from Staffordshire were today behind bars for their role in a counterfeit cigarette racket capable of making up to 625 million counterfeit cigarettes and five million pouches of fake hand rolling tobacco a year.
A COUPLE who ran an illicit enterprise dealing in smuggled tobacco and cigarettes have been jailed.
Over 16.5million illegal cigarettes - the largest single detection in the North West region this year - have been seized in Castleton.
A mum is likely to lose her job and family home after being convicted of selling cigarettes to children.
A Manchester airport worker has been jailed for her part in a gang scam to illegally buy millions of duty-free cigarettes - avoiding paying tax.
TWO men who sold almost £1 million worth of smuggled cigarettes and tobacco from a Doncaster mini market have been jailed for a total of 11 years.
A MAN who helped flood the streets of South Tyneside with black market cigarettes has been put behind bars.
A new operation targeting people who sell counterfeit cigarettes to young people, is under way in Blackpool.
A Stockport man who illegally smuggled a tonne of tobacco into the UK hidden in furniture, mirrors and handicrafts has been sentenced.
Two men and three women from Merseyside have been arrested, and cigarettes and tobacco seized, during raids by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) officers.
A FORMER Whitehaven train driver masterminded a £200,000 international fraud by sending illicit drugs and tobacco home to his friends in West Cumbria after emigrating to Thailand, a court has heard.
THE ECHO today lifts the lid on the black market trade that starts in China and ends up behind the counters of corner shops, pubs and newsagents across Liverpool.
More than 37 kilos of illegal tobacco and almost 23,000 non UK duty paid cigarettes have been seized by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in an operation targeting the trade in illegal tobacco across Lancashire and Manchester.
A Macclesfield man, who hijacked the identity of a company in Wales and illegally imported over 18 million cigarettes in containers claiming they were board games was jailed for three years and eight months.
A market trader from Rochdale, who claimed boxes containing 40kilos of smuggled tobacco were packed with flowers, was sentenced to a suspended jail term and community work at Manchester Crown Court today for trading in illicit tobacco. His accomplice from Humberside was sentenced to 19 months jail.
A former football club chief executive has been jailed for five-and-a-half years after admitting to not paying duty on £4.5m-worth of cigarettes.
A Lancashire gang who imported over two million contraband cigarettes into the country packed inside wheelie bins has been jailed for a total of almost nine-years.
Six members of a gang who used high-tech equipment to turn out 24 fake bottles of vodka a minute, plus large quantities of hand rolling tobacco, were jailed at Southwark Crown Court today for more than 56 years.
A father and son team from Sunderland has been sentenced after selling illegal tobacco and alcohol from their city centre store.
Four men have been given suspended jail sentences after being caught selling illegal cigarettes at a Bolton market.
Two Manchester men who pretended to import Christmas snowmen in a plot to smuggle nine million cigarettes into the UK, have been jailed. The cigarettes had a potential tax loss of over £1.4 million.
Police and trading standards have seized hundreds of counterfeit cigarettes and packets of tobacco following a raid on two homes on Gateshead's Springwell Estate.
Five Merseyside men have been arrested and almost 10-million illegal cigarettes seized by officers from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
A group of illegal tobacco traders from Barnsley has been convicted after being caught with over 2-million illegal cigarettes destined for the local market.
Around 1.5 million cigarettes have been found hidden inside concrete blocks at Hull docks by our officers.
Officers uncovered the haul on Thursday night (2 December) following checks on lorry freight arriving from Zeebrugge in Belgium.
More than 1 million cigarettes have been found inside concrete blocks at Immingham docks by our officers.
Officers uncovered the haul on Wednesday (27 October) following checks on lorry freight arriving from the continent.
More than 10,000 cigarettes and 1.5kg of tobacco were seized during a raid on a Birkenhead shop.
Cumbria Trading Standards has vowed to step up its efforts in stamping out counterfeit tobacco and underage sales following the conviction of an ice-cream seller who sold fake fags to kids.
Thousands of illegal cigarettes have been taken off the streets following raids on a shop and a house in Huddersfield.
An illegal tobacco smuggler has been forced to pay back £185,000 of his ill-gotten gains to avoid facing a prison sentence.
Police in Kent have seized an ice-cream van packed with cigarettes and tobacco, after being tipped off by local residents.
Proceeds gained from illegal tobacco smuggling were used by the Provisional IRA to help fund terrorism, according to an article in The Irish Times.
Thousands of pounds-worth of illegal cigarettes and alcohol were confiscated during a raid in New Herrington.
A gang of cigarette smugglers have been jailed after bringing almost 200,000 illegal cigarettes through Newcastle Airport.
Two men who ran an international smuggling operation to bring in 11 million illegal cigarettes have been jailed for a total of almost 20 years.
Police officers in Bolton discover packs of illegal cigarettes and contraband loose tobacco after raiding a busy town centre pound shop.
Four women from Sunderland have been caught trying to smuggle 64,000 cigarettes into the UK after a trip to Tenerife.
Children as young as eight are being exploited by criminals and criminal gangs running so-called 'tab houses', health officials have warned.
Two men have been fined £1,130 for selling cigarettes to kids as young as 11 from their ice-cream van in Pontypool.
Trading standards officers have launched a series of raids on houses in Gateshead suspected of selling illegal tobacco.
Two cousins have been jailed for 18-months after selling tens of thousands of pounds-worth of counterfeit goods, including illegal tobacco, from their shop in Bradford.
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